Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, says non-violent prisoners should be allowed to pay their way out of jail.

Ms Rinehart, who owns 15 per cent of Fairfax Media, said Australia should follow the lead of US state Texas and look for ways to reduce the number of people imprisoned at taxpayers’ expense.

“Let them pay to get out of prison or not enter prison (a new source of revenue), and let them be part of the tax-paying workforce,” she said in an opinion article published in the latest edition of Australian Resources and Investment magazine.

She said Australia would benefit because it needs “more workers and taxpayers”, especially in the face of increasing health costs due to an ageing population.

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“And before the left media shrieks that this would only benefit the richer, non-violent prisoners, for those non-violent prisoners who couldn’t pay sufficiently to get out of prison, there could be other means, such as should they agree to give up their votes, and or passports for x years, depending on the seriousness of the respective non-violent crime, they could then leave prison and rejoin the workforce,” she said.

Ms Rinehart also attacked Australia’s high tax levels, “left wing media circles” and the art on the walls of government offices, which she said should be sold off.

“Of course, I’ve received much negative publicity from left-wing media circles keen to attack people who are not in tune with left-wing propaganda,” she said.

“But the more the left attack me, the more I’m having fellow Aussies come up to me and thank me for speaking out, and asking me to continue; and the more invitations I get to speak to clubs, forums and other organisations in Australia and elsewhere.”

She urged Australians to speak out in favour of government spending cuts, the repayment of public debt, tax cuts and the encouragement of business investment.